On the Road Again

After a long and painful stay in Cali,  my parts arrived and I got my bike running again.  Finally!  The evening of the breakdown, we were at a hotel at a gas station,  I heard a Harley pull in for gas so I ran down to ask if he knew of a Harley shop in Cali.  The only Harley stealership in Colombia is in Bogota, 9 hours away but he told me about a guy in Cali that works on them.  We had a truck lined up for the morning so that was where we went.  I had to trust somebody.  It turned out to be a good move.  It was a one man operation and there was plenty of bikes in and out while we were waiting for parts.  I wanted to do the work myself but it was his shop and tools,  what can I say.  He finally got it together on Thursday around lunchtime.  Total bill - for labor and oil change $80.00US, I gave him $100.  We had already paid for another night at the apartment we rented which was directly across the street from the shop, so when we were invited to go for a ride that evening for supper we said yes.  We road to one of the parks where they hang out, waiting for everyone to gather.  It was 9:00pm by this time, but about 15 Harley's gathered together with a handful of other makes to give the Americans a night tour of Cali.  We were treated like celebrities.   Couldn't spend any money and everybody wanted pictures together.  What a great time we had riding around.  We gulped down some wings and burgers before being escorted back around midnight.   Next day it was time to hit the road that we missed so much.  We took a two or three hour test ride to a town called Popoyan.  Known as the "white city" because almost all of the old buildings downtown are white.  It's quite the site.  Today we moved on further south to Pasto about 60 miles from the Ecuador/Colombia border.  Not much going on here but we took a walk around to see what we could get into.  Tomorrow should take us to the border but we probably won't go through that aggravation until Monday morning.  So, stay tuned, same time, same channel. Do you know where your children are?

Cali downtime consisted of a lotofwalking around,  the Mercado(market) and the zoo.

Typical zoo so just a few pictures of animals you don't usually see.

                     Llamas....yes they are!

            This is a Tapir.  The Guatemala national animal.

        Baby to the Tapir above.

If I recall correctly this is a South African Bok

I know you see tigers butdo you get to pet them? 

Neither did we.  Too bad the glass was dirty.

This is his "pen pal"

The rare speckled bear found only in South America

         These are the largest rodent in the world and they are infesting South America.  They are called Capybara

                        Andean Condor. I believe this is the largest bird of prey in the world

                      You lookin' at ME?

         I have no idea what this bird is called.  

  Of course the last pictures are parrots and the toucan.  

 

               Fruit and grain at the Mercado

           These have been rooftop views of Cali from our apartment.

          One from street level.   Three million people live in Cali.

   Gathering at the park.  Now the park is to my right,  it is in the center of a big roundabout and the

cars cruise around,  bikers although segregated by style of bike,  all gather here and hang out and everybody just has a good ole time.

You can see the park in the background.  Check out the size of that rubber tree above the car.

        Harley Guzman and girlfriend.  He was the mechanic that put my parts in.

   Here we are on the night ride.  Notice how there is about five or six lanes.  It's a two lane road.  That's how they roll in Colombia.  Actually all throughout Latin American countries.

Camera setting was off but this was the crew that showed us around plus a few not in the picture.

The overlook that they took us to.  Trust me the picture doesn't do it justice.

             Next up---- Popoyan, the white city.

We hiked up a hill.behind the town to an overlook

On to Pasto

 

                  Central plaza Pasto

Pasto had some massive doors,  like 10-12 feet tall so I took a few pictures.  For some reason graffiti started to catch my eye so I started taking pictures of that too.  Also some statues on the cathedrals. 

Here we were in a restaurant about 60 miles north of the Ecuadorian border and as we paid our tab and heading outthedoor,  in walks this unknown character.

We are now on the border at Ipiales until morning when we do battle with customs and immigration.  They say it takes 4-5 hours here on a regular basis.  Beaurocracy? at its finest.  Goodbye Colombia, Hello Ecuador.